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Class bjj &%} 6 



PENNSYLVANIA 
h 

DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY. 



INSTRUCTIONS 



TO 



FOREST WARDENS. 



By I. C. WILLIAMS, Esq., 
of the Department of Forestry. 



Published by direction of the Commissioner of 
Forestry. 



WM. STANLEY RAY, 

STATE PRINTER OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
1903. 



J> >s 



~fC 






0(b- 




D. of D. 
JAN 16 915 



(2) 



N 



Pennsylvania Department of Forestry, 

Harrisburg, Pa., August 1, 1903. 

Sir: I have the honor to submit herewith for 
publication and distribution among those en- 
titled thereto, what I have called "Instruc- 
tions to Forest Wardens," prepared under your 
direction and at your request. It is intended 
to give those persons employed as care-takers, 
or wardens, upon the State lands held for For- 
estry Reservation purposes, such information 
as they will need with respect to the duties, 
rights, and liabilities imposed and conferred 
upon them by reason of the passage by the 
Legislature of the Act of March 11, 1903, P. 
L. 25. 

No attempt whatever at technical discussion 
has been made. The matter has been con- 
densed to the smallest compass thought ad- 
visable, with an endeavor to present it in plain 
narrative, easily comprehended by those not 
familiar with legal language or forms. It of 
necessity presents but a constricted view of 
the law relating to constables. 

Very respectfully, 

I. 0. WILLIAMS. 
Hon. J. T. ROTHROCK, M. D. 

Commissioner of Forestry. 



(3) 



(4) 



Instructions to Forest Wardens, who under the 

the Act of March 11, 1903, P. L. 25, are 

invested with Constabulary Powers. 



Among the laws enacted by the General As- 
sembly for the creation and protection of the 
Forest Reservations, the act of March 11, 1903 
is important. The text of the acr in full is 
as follows: 

AN ACT 

Conferring upon persons employed, under existing laws, by 
the Commissioner of Forestry, for the protection of State 
Forestry Reservations, after taking the proper oath of 
office, the same powers as are by law conferred upon con- 
stables and other peace officers; to arrest, without first 
procuring a warrant, persons reasonably suspected by 
them of offending against the laws protecting timber 
lands ; also, conferring upon them similar powers for the 
enforcement of the laws and rules and regulations for the 
protection of the State Forestry Reservations, and for 
the protection of the game and fish contained therein ; 
and further, conferring upon them power to convey said 
offenders into the proper legal custody, for punishment ; 
this act to apply only to offences committed upon said 
reservations and lands adjacent thereto. 

Section 1. Be it enacted, &c, That the per- 
sons employed under existing laws, by the 
Commissioner of Forestry, for the protection 
of State Forestry Reservations, shall, after 
taking the proper official oath before the clerk 
of the court of quarter sessions of any county 
of the Commonwealth, be vested with the 
same powers as are by existing laws conferred 

"(5) 



6 

upon constables and other peace officers: to 
arrest on view, without first procuring a war- 
rant therefor, persons detected by them in the 
act of trespassing upon any forest or timber 
land within this Commonwealth, under such 
circumstances as to warrant the reasonable 
suspicion that such person or persons have 
committed, are committing, or are about to 
commit, some offence or offences against any 
of the laws now enacted or hereafter to be 
enacted for the protection of forests and tim- 
ber lands. Such officers shall likewise be 
vested with similar powers of arrest, in the 
case of offences against the laws or the rules 
and regulations enacted or to be enacted for 
the protection of the State Forestry Eeserva- 
tions, or for the protection of the fish and 
game contained therein: Provided, That the 
above mentioned rules and regulations shall 
have been previously conspicuously posted 
upon the reservation. Said officers shall fur- 
ther be empowered, and it shall be their duty, 
immediately upon any such arrest, to take and 
convey the offender or offenders before a jus- 
tice of the peace or other magistrate having 
jurisdiction, for hearing and trial, or other due 
process of law: Provided further, That this 
act shall extend only to the case of offences 
committed upon said Forestry Reservations 
and lands adjacent thereto; and the powers 
herein conferred upon said officers shall not 
be exercised beyond the limits thereof, except 
wmere necessary for the purpose of pursuing 



and arresting such offenders, or of conveying 
them into the proper legal custody, for punish- 
ment, as aforesaid. 

Section 2. All acts or parts of acts inconsist- 
ent herewith be and the same are hereby re- 
pealed. 

Approved — The 11th day of March, A. D. 
1903. 

SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. 

It will be observed that this act confers 
large discretionary powers as well as import- 
ant duties upon persons employed by the State 
Forestry Reservation Commission, in the care 
of State lands held for Forest Reservation pur- 
poses. These persons, while not so designated 
by the act, are commonly known as Forest 
Wardens. 

Before proceeding to a discussion of the 
duties and liabilities of Forest Wardens under 
this law, it may be desirable to consider in a 
brief manner the office of constable in general, 
his duties, his qualifications, and his liabilities 
under existing laws. 

The office of constable is an ancient one. His 
title is derived from the fact that originally 
he was Comes stabuli, count of the stable, 
chief of the horse, of the ancient military 
barons and war lords of Europe. The con- 






stable of France was a high officer of the 
crown, and the Lord High Constable of Eng- 
land was the commander-in-chief of the army, 
the keeper of the peace of the nation. He was 
also invested with judicial power and regu- 
larly held his court for the cognizance of such 
matters as were within his jurisdiction. 

The constable of to-day is still a conserva 
tor of the peace within his county. He is the 
executive officer of a township, a ward, or a 
borough, but may exercise his authority 
throughout a county. He is required to exe- 
cute civil process and every precept directed 
to him. A constable formerly held his office 
for a year, but now for tliree years. He must 
give a bond for not less than five hundred dol- 
lars nor for more than three thousand dollars, 
unless he is a free holder with unincumbered 
property of the value of one thousand dollars. 
The court of quarter sessions of any county 
may remove a constable from office if it appear 
upon petition that he is unfit and incompetent 
to discharge his official duties, or where he 
shall not have given the security required. He 
may command others to assist him in making 
arrests or executing writs, where assistance is 
needed. 

In civil process, the service of a summons is 



9 

the most common duty of a constable. A sum- 
mons is a writ signed, dated, and issued by 
a justice of the peace, directed to a constable, 
commanding him to give notice to a person 
named therein to appear at a certain time and 
place to answer a complaint. A summons is 
the method of beginning a civil suit or action 
at law, and all natural persons, except those 
exempt, and corporations may be made de- 
fendants and served therewith. To every sum- 
mons there must be a return. This is the re- 
port of the constable as to the manner in which 
he has executed the writ. It must show the 
date and manner of service, be in writing, and 
be signed bv him. 

Certain actions are of the nature of both civil 
and criminal suits and are begun by capias 
instead of summons. In these cases the body 
of the defendant is taken, that is, he is placed 
under arrest. The person arrested must, with- 
out unnecessary delay, be taken before a mag- 
istrate for hearing, to be followed by a hold- 
ing to bail, a commitment, or a discharge. The 
service of a summons or of a capias on Sunday 
is unlawful and void. The constable cannot 
break an outer door to make service of these 
writs at any time. 

Certain persons are exempt from service of 



10 

process by reason of their position. They are 
ambassadors and public ministers of foreign 
countries and their employees; members of 
Congress and State legislators while in atten- 
dance upon their public duties; electors, that 
is, voters, attending elections, going to or re- 
turning therefrom; soldiers and militia men 
during term of service, unless for a debt in 
excess of f 20.00 contracted before enlistment; 
parties to a suit, counsel and. witnesses in at- 
tendance at court, or going to or returning 
therefrom; jurors, attorneys and agents in at- 
tendance upon court; and freeholders having 
unincumbered real estate to the value of two 
hundred and fifty dollars, are privileged from 
arrest. 

A constable who has made an arrest on 
capias may take a bail bond for the appear- 
ance of the defendant, but he must take suffi- 
cient security else he will be liable to the 
plaintiff. In executing civil process a consta- 
ble will have other duties to perform. They 
may consist of making an ordinary levy follow- 
ing a judgment obtained upon a summons, and 
a sale thereunder; making an attachment exe- 
cution; the attachment of fraudulent debtors; 
against non-resident debtors; and domestic at- 
tachment; serving distress warrants in land- 



11 

lord and tenant cases; executing a writ of pos- 
session; making returns to court of unlicensed 
places where liquors are sold; the illegal sale 
of liquors by licensed persons; the sale or giv- 
ing away of liquors on election day, or near 
militia encampments; attendance on election 
and the duties incident thereto. 

A Forest Warden would probably never be 
called upon to exercise an}- of these duties and 
for that reason no further comment thereon is 
necessary. 

In criminal cases, the duty of a constable is 
especially to preserve the peace, and make ar- 
rests for violation or breach thereof. He has 
power to imprison and break outer doors when 
necessary to prevent homicide, riot, or a dan- 
gerous breach of the peace. Every person is 
in morals bound to take notice of violations 
of law and make complaints thereon; but a 
constable is legally required to prevent crime 
and bring the perpetrators lo justice. 

An arrest is "the apprehending or restrain- 
ing of one's person, in order to be forthcoming 
to answer an alleged or suspected crime." It 
is a literal seizing of the body and the holding 
of it in custody. 

In making an arrest, more than mere words 
is necessary. It is not sufficient to say, "I 



12 

arrest you," or "you are my prisoner," or "I 
have a warrant for your arrest." But if the 
person so addressed submits and goes with the 
officer, the arrest is complete. If the defend- 
ant run away and escape without being 
touched by the constable, there is no arrest. 
The constable must, therefore, exercise some 
corporal taking or restraint. A slight re- 
straint, a mere touching, is held to be suffi- 
cient. The constable should inform the person 
whom he takes that he arrests him; but when 
the arrest is made during the actual commis- 
sion of an offense, this is not necessary. A 
constable may use violence in making an arrest 
but only such violence as is necessary. If 
the officer in attempting to arrest is resisted 
by the defendant, he may and must use all the 
force necessary to subdue his prisoner. If the 
offense committed or about to be committed 
is a felony, and the prisoner resists and es- 
capes, the officer, after informing him of his 
order and intention, may shoot to compel him 
to stop. If the offense involved is a misde- 
meanor only, he has no right to shoot a person 
evading arrest. 

Prisoners should be treated fairly and kindly 
after arrest, and only as much violence used as 
is necessary to restrain. It is usual and pro- 



la 

per to make a search of the person in order 
to find such evidences of guilt as may be sus- 
pected. Property thus taken from a prisoner 
must be turned over to the magistrate to await 
the final outcome of the case. 

Since the distinction between felonies and 
misdemeanors affects the officer's power and 
manner of making arrests, every constable 
should clearly understand the difference be- 
tween them. By felonies we understand those 
heinous and more serious crimes as contra-dis- 
tinguished from the milder and more trivial 
kinds, which are called misdemeanors. Ori- 
ginally felonies were those offenses which were 
punished capitally or by imprisonment, and 
were accompanied by forfeiture of lands and 
goods; all others were misdemeanors. Ori- 
ginally, therefore, it was the kind of punish- 
ment meted out for an offense which deter- 
mined whether it fell within one or the other 
class. This distinction has disappeared in 
America, and crimes are by express statutory 
enactment declared to be either felonies or 
misdemeanors, and the punishment prescribed 
thereby. No one would undertake to describe 
a felony or a misdemeanor by exact definition. 
They are known as such only by statutory 
enactment and simple enumeration. 



14 

The following are felonies: Murder, robbery, 
larceny, rape, burglary, arson, sodomy, bug- 
gery, counterfeiting, passing counterfeit money 
knowingly, assault and battery with intent to 
kill, or intent to kill by administering poison, 
or by stabbing, or other means; shooting or at- 
tempting to shoot a person; stabbing with in- 
tent to maim or disfigure; explosion of gun- 
powder or other explosive with intent to harm; 
or sending any such explosive or other dan- 
gerous thing, or throwing at a person any acid 
or corrosive substance, with like intent; ad- 
ministering chloroform or stupefying drugs in 
an attempt to commit a felony; procuring an 
abortion; breaking open by day or by night, 
with intent to commit a felony, aay house, 
barn, stable, shop, etc.; attempting to wreck 
a railroad train, or to blow up a house with in- 
tent to destroy it or harm persons within. 

It will be noticed that the intent is the de- 
termining feature of many of the above fel- 
onies.. No one can be supposed to be able to 
read the mind of another, to discover his in- 
tent; but it is a safe rule to follow that a per- 
son intends the consequences of his act, and 
when a constable has reasonable ground to sus- 
pect the intent of an act and acts accordingly, 
he will be protected, though mistaken. The 



15 

reasonable ground of suspicion should be clear. 

The following acts are misdemeanors: The 
adulteration of goods, candy, liquors, etc., as- 
sault and battery with or without a weapon, 
bribery, corruptly influencing voters, selling- 
votes, selling cigarettes to persons under six- 
teen years of age, compounding crimes, carry- 
ing concealed deadly weapons, conspiracy, 
cruelty to animals, disorderly conduct, keep- 
ing disorderly houses, disturbing public meet- 
ings, drunkenness, duelling, embezzlement, 
corruptly influencing jurors, escape from cus- 
tody, aiding prisoners to escape, voluntarily 
or negligently permitting them to escape, 
carrying dangerous detonating explosives 
upon public conveyances, selling firearms to 
persons under sixteen years of age, the manu- 
facture and sale of toy pistols, extortion, false 
pretense, forgery, fortune telling, gambling, 
fraudulent insolvency, lewdness, libels, con- 
ducting lotteries, malicious mischief and tres- 
pass, mayhem, dissemination of obscene litera- 
ture, maintaining a nuisance, running an 
opium joint, perjury, prize fighting, profanity, 
riot, seduction, sending threatening letters, etc. 

The offenses enumerated in the various acts 
of Assembly for the protection of forests and 
woodlands, and of which the forest wardens 



16 

have special cognizance by reason of the act 
of March 11, 1903, hereinbefore cited, are all 
misdemeanors. 

Arrests are made in two ways, either with 
or without a warrant. A warrant is a writ, or 
an authority in writing, issued by a justice of 
the peace usually, directing and commanding 
a constable to take the body of the person 
named therein and bring him before the justice 
to answer a charge against him. The warrant 
should give the name and surname of the per- 
son to be arrested, or such description as will 
enable the officer to identify him; it should 
state the offense committed and be signed by 
the person issuing it. When executed, the 
warrant should be returned to the justice show- 
ing the manner of execution. When a consta- 
ble receives a warrant he should proceed to 
execute it as soon as convenient and with rea- 
sonable secrecy. If he refuse to execute it, 
he is guilty of a misdemeanor. Where the 
official character of the officer is known to the 
person arrested, the warrant need not be 
shown nor need he give notice of his office, but 
he should state the reason of the arrest. A 
safe course to follow is to show the warrant 
if demanded. When arresting a stranger, the 
constable should either show his warrant or 



17 

give notice of his legal authority. A consta- 
ble should never part with his warrant. If the 
person inspecting it keep it, the officer may use 
as much force as is necessary to retake it. A 
constable may arrest without a warrant any 
one attempting to commit a felony, or on a 
reasonable suspicion that a felony has been 
committed. He may likewise arrest without 
warrant for breach of the peace committed in 
his presence; otherwise a warrant must be 
procured, unless the breach of the peace was 
committed with intent to commit a felony. 

A constable has no right to break open an 
outer door to execute civil process. Having 
a warrant for an arrest on the charge of tre- 
son, felony or breach of the peace he may break 
open an outer door to execute it. . He has the 
same right to break open a door to arrest with- 
out a warrant, where the arrest is made on his 
own authority, that he has with a warrant. 
He should however demand admittance before 
breaking, as a matter of precaution. 

Having made an arrest, a constable must 
conduct his prisoner before a magistrate for 
a hearing. The time within which this must 
be done is not governed by any precise rule. 
It has been decided that he cannot hold him 
three days while he is collecting evidence. If 



18 

the arrest is made at night, the hearing should 
be had the next day. If during the day, it 
should be held that day if the justice can be 
found before night. In the meantime the con- 
stable must keep his prisoner safely. He may 
confine him in a house, a lockup, or a jail, if 
one is convenient. If the person arrested be 
sick, the taking before the justice may be de- 
layed until such time as he may be safely re- 
moved. A prisoner is in the custody of the 
constable until his hearing is concluded. 

A warrant of arrest may be executed any- 
where within the Commonwealth and the offiln- 
der carried before the justice or other officer is- 
suing the warrant. When an arrest is made 
without a warrant and the prisoner carried be- 
fore the justice, the constable should then 
make an information giving the reason of the 
arrest, unless the prisoner waive a hearing and 
give bail for court. 

The foregoing discussion covers in part only 
the duties of constables, but is believed to be 
sufficient for the purposes here intended. In 
case of doubt how to act, a warden will com- 
municate at once with this Department. 

It will be noticed that under the act of March 
11, 1903, the duties of constables so conferred 
upon wardens are to be exercised only upon 



19 

the State Forestry Reservations or upon the 
adjacent or immediately adjoining lands. Such 
violations of law as will most probably come 
under their immediate official cognizance will 
be those having to do with trespassing and the 
inflicting of damage to timber. Under the 
statutes, these are wilfully setting on fire any 
woods, lands, or marshes belonging to the Com- 
monwealth, cutting any timber therefrom, 
cutting or removing boundary trees and land 
marks, kindling fire on adjacent lands so as 
to communicate fire to State lands, cutting 
bark from, burning, or otherwise injuring 
trees, carrying any lighted candle, lamp, or 
torch, or other open fire into a forest, setting 
off fireworks within a forest; or any other act 
not herein specifically mentioned which will 
cause damage to forest lands or timber be- 
longing to the Commonwealth. 

Before proceeding to exercise his said office, 
a warden must go before the clerk of the court 
of quarter sessions of the proper county and 
take the official oath such as is taken by all 
constables. He is then invested with full au- 
thority under the act, so long as he remains in 
the employ of the Department of Forestry upon 
the State lands. 



20 

The act provides that arrests may be made 
in two classes of cases: 

1. For those acts prohibited by existing laws 
now in force or hereafter to be enacted for the 
protection of forests and timber lands. 

2. For violations of the rules and regulations 
made for the protection of the Reservations, 
or of the fish and game contained therein. 

In the first case, arrests may be made imme- 
diately after taking the oath; in the second, the 
rules and regulations must have been pre- 
viously conspicuously posted upon the Reserva- 
tions. The act expressly provides that ar- 
rests shall be made for offenses committed 
upon the Reservations or upon lands adjacent; 
and that the power of arrest on view without 
warrant shall not be exercised beyond these 
limits, except for the pursuit of offenders and 
the taking of them after arrest into proper 
legal custody. If an offender be caught in 
the act, he may be arrested then and there. 
If the indentity of the warden is not known to 
the person arrested, it should be declared and 
the official badge exhibited. It is probable 
that occasionally felonies and other misde- 
meanors may be commited upon the Forest 
Reservations. A warden will in such cases 
be governed by what has been stated above 



21 

with respect to constables generally. A rea- 
sonable suspicion on the part of the warden 
that a trespasser is about to commit or has 
committed a violation of the law, without see- 
ing him in the act, .will entitle the officer to 
make an arrest without warrant; but the cir- 
cumstances must be such, either from present 
appearance or from conduct on the part of the 
person suspected as would lead a reasonable 
person to suspect that an offense has been 
or is about to be committed, and by the person 
suspected. The offense and the person sus- 
pected must in some way be connected in the 
mind of the officer. 

Having made an arrest, the warden should 
take his prisoner before the nearest justice of 
the peace, or at least the one most convenient 
to reach. No unusual haste is demanded and 
no unnecessary delay should intervene. The 
justice will then proceed to hear the evidence. 
The warden making the arrest is a competent 
witness and may testify to all facts within his 
own knowledge or which he learned upon in- 
quiry. All witnesses having knowledge of the 
case in hand should be produced and if they 
refuse to come voluntarily, should be brought 
under subpoena. If a matter where summary 
conviction may be had, the justice will, if the 



22 

case is sufficiently proved, impose the penalty 
provided by the acts of Assembly; otherwise 
he will discharge the prisoner. If a case that 
is cognizable by the county court, the defen- 
dant may waive a hearing and enter bail for 
court; or after hearing, may be held to bail 
to answer at court, or he may appeal. 

After a prisoner has been sentenced to pay 
a fine, or in default of payment thereof, to an 
imprisonment as a punishment for his offense, 
it is the duty of the constable to take the de- 
fendant to the county jail, and by any method 
most convenient to the officer; and the expense 
of doing this is a part of the proper expenses 
of the case. For this purpose the justice will 
issue a mittimus (literally, u we send'-), an order 
to the constable directing him so to dispose 
of his prisoner. When the latter is safely de- 
livered into the custody of the keeper of the 
county jail, the duties of the constable are at 
an end. 

Should a warden need assistance in the mak- 
ing of an arrest, he may require bystanders to 
lend such help as may be needed. Upon their 
refusal to assist, they may be proceeded against 
and punished for such refusal. 

When attacked, a person has the right to re- 
sist in self defense. If a warden in making 



23 

an arrest is attacked by his prospective pris- 
oner or any of the latter's associates, he may 
and must use all possible force in resisting 
their attack and in his own defense. If it is 
necessary to take life in defense of one's own 
life, this is excusable homicide. It is not nec- 
essary that the person attacked should first 
submit to a beating or even worse injury before 
he acts in his own defense. He is not com- 
pelled to retreat as far as he is able before he 
opposes force with force; but may from the 
very outset resist and follow up his resistance 
until he has successfully driven off his assail- 
ant, or in the case of a warden, reduced him 
to subjection and arrest. This view of the 
law is expressly decided and upheld by the 
courts of Pennsylvania and by the Supreme 
Court of the United States. It remains further 
to say only that while acting in self defense, 
a warden should use as much deliberation and 
good judgment as the circumstances of the 
affair will permit and not follow up any ad- 
vantage obtained by him, in inflicting grievous 
and unnecessary injury upon his prisoner. 

Under the act of March 30, 1897, all consta- 
bles are ex-omcio fire wardens; and under the 
act of March 22, 1899, all constables are ex- 
omcio fire, game, and fish wardens. While it 



24 

may or. may not be a question whether the act 
of March 11, 1903 confers upon State Forest 
Wardens the powers contained in the two first 
mentioned acts, all wardens should be familiar 
with the provisions thereof and be prepared to 
report any violations thereof to the proper au- 
thorities and insist upon prosecutions in proper 
cases. Copies of the said acts above referred 
to and all the acts in force in the State on the 
subject of Forestry will be furnished each 
State employe upon Reservations, and the 
Commissioner of Forestry recommends that by 
continual study of the same, entire familiarity 
with their provisions may be acquired. After 
a reasonable time allowed for study, a regular 
drill and examination thereon is proposed to 
be held. 

Wardens so invested with authority must 
use good judgment and employ the dictates of 
reason so far as it is in their power to do. 
They must not be needlessly officious nor op- 
pressive in their acts; but while enforcing the 
laws must employ" such sound discretion as 
will enable them to do their whole duty, pre- 
serve the dignity of their official positions, and 
at the same time, to the end that all citizens 
may be led to recognize the aims of this De- 
partment, advance the Forestry Idea so far as 
thev may be able. 



